Plastic Hippos
by Cyn V
Summary: Young Obito and Kakashi struggle to find common ground.


**Disclaimer: _Naruto_ is not mine and I would not have it any other way.****  
Warnings: Fluff of the Kakashi and Obito friendship variety liberally sprinkled with one-sided Obito/Rin. These guys have been tortured enough.**

* * *

Was hoping for disaster to strike a bad thing? Because Obito Uchiha was desperate for a distraction. A flash flood or a storm would be nice. Anything to break the awkwardness of this situation.

He had had the brilliant idea of inviting his teammate, Kakashi Hatake, for lunch. The trouble was that they were incapable of getting along. They were like night and day, water and oil, complete opposites with no common ground. Where Obito was cheery, Kakashi was morbid, and where Kakashi was a genius that got everything right on the first attempt, Obito tended to find most tasks a challenge, starting with getting anywhere on time. Even their physical appearance reflected the difference, Obito having black hair and Kakashi's being white. It was like mother nature's big hint to not bother trying to relate to each other.

Unfortunately, being on the same team meant that they had to form a minimal understanding, if they did not want to spend their days continuously butting heads as they were now.

An outing for lunch had seemed like the perfect solution to their problem. It was a chance to talk away from the competitive environment of training and missions, relax and get to know the other, find out what they had in common. Obito knew that Kakashi was not the most talkative guy in the world, but, coming from a big family, he had been confident in his ability to keep up a steady stream of conversation. In theory, it had sounded perfect.

In practise? They had just finished discussing the weather for the third time and the only occasion in which Kakashi had produced more than an affirmative or negative grunt had been to order his food.

When asked to choose the restaurant, Kakashi had shrugged and left the decision up to the Uchiha. Obito, on the other hand, had already gone over a detailed description of each of his relatives and then over every dish on the menu one by one, literally, to recount some sort of funny story that had happened to him that included those dishes.

Throughout it all, Kakashi's half-lidded gaze had remained unperturbed and unreadable and every other type of un-something. He had barely said a word; he had not even shared anything as basic as whether he had any brothers or sisters. Obito felt just about ready to hand over the money for his half of the bill and walk away.

He looked around the barbecue house for inspiration for one final attempt at conversation, or for someone to come to his rescue, but the two young ninjas were the only customers still there. Their team's practise had run longer than usual that day, forcing them to take a late meal. In fact, now that he was checking, Obito realised that the restaurant owner was discreetly giving them something of a nasty eye for making him keep the place open so far past closing hour.

Obito looked down at all the uneaten food that remained on the table and could not help but deflate a little more under the extra negativity.

"So," he said a bit louder than necessary in a last effort to fight off defeat. "Strange thing, to have so much sun in November, huh?..."

Kakashi did not pause in his chewing, only briefly raised his eyes to meet his and – yeah, even Obito could agree that there were only so many different ways you could comment on the weather before it got not only dumb, but ridiculously so. He stuffed an especially large slice of meat into his mouth and propped his chin on his hand. It was easier to follow Kakashi's example and spare them the pain of enduring each other's company any longer than necessary by quickly ending the meal. It was a shame that the mood stripped the delicious food of all appeal.

Then it hit him.

"Wait... it's November?"

This time, Kakashi's gaze was a little more lingering, a little more penetrating. Obito imagined that he was internally questioning his intelligence – again – but this epiphany was important enough to outweigh even that slight.

"What day is it?" Obito asked.

"The fourteenth."

"Crap!" Obito's immediate response was to start shovelling food twice as fast, raw meat and all. "By now..." he continued after pushing everything down with a giant gulp of water. "Hurry up and eat! We don't have much time!"

"What's gotten into you?"

Kakashi would choose this moment to start talking, the contrary bastard, just now that Obito had given up on it himself. But it was late afternoon of the fourteenth of November. Obito told himself not to waste time paying attention to what his teammate had or did not have to say, reached over the table and shoved the stupid genius's head back down towards his plate. He grunted something that Kakashi might have interpreted as "eat!" had he the ability to read minds.

The moment they were finally – finally – done eating and left the restaurant, much to the owner's joy, Kakashi waved his "see you tomorrows" and turned to walk home. Obito would have none of that, however. He hooked his arm around Kakashi's and started dragging him the other way.

"Hey," Kakashi groused. "What do you want now, loser?"

Obito's eyes bugged out a little at the insult, but he held back on his response, reminding himself that it was the fourteenth and all the shops would be closing soon.

"You really don't care about anyone but yourself, do you? Didn't your parents teach you any better?" the Uchiha said. "Tomorrow is Rin's birthday, idiot. We have to get her a present."

The groan Kakashi produced in answer was spectacular. It hit all the notes of "are you kidding me?" and rivalled the ones Obito's little sister used to make when their parents denied her something she had particularly wanted.

"I'm not interested. You go on."

"The hell I will," Obito shot back. He was focused on the shops they were passing by and so did not bother turning around to look at his teammate. "Tomorrow is Rin's eleventh birthday and we're a damn team. We are both getting her something and I've got just the thing."

The ensuing sigh was even more dramatic. This one reminded Obito of the time his mother had told him he would have to give up his bedroom and move to his brothers' after his great-aunt had gone to live with them. He had tried to argue in favour of staying on the living room couch, but his mother would have none of that and so his existence had been plagued by his two older brothers ever since. Obito was fully prepared to do the same to the white-haired freak now.

Kakashi's reluctance at last gave way to amusement when the other boy led them with a triumphant grin into a store that all but cried out "for girls". Obito did not need to look around. He easily navigated the displays of overly pink plushy kittens, puppies and butterflies, past the bracelets with way too many baubles dangling from them and something else, round and full of feathers, whose purpose Kakashi did not even want to take a guess at. The Uchiha went straight for a shelf at the back of the store and picked up a key-chain with a plastic hippo.

He held up the little bug-eyed grey figurine, inspecting its pink apron and miniature spatula, and turned towards his teammate. "What do you think?"

"I think it's disturbing that you know your way around this place as well as you do," Kakashi commented. "Visit here often?"

Obito rolled his eyes. "I meant the hippo, dumbass. And the reason I've been here before is that I have a little sister who is spoiled."

"Right." The feeling of "unimpressed" rolled off the prodigy in waves. "I suppose the hippo is... cute."

The way Kakashi's voice nearly faded to pronounce the last word might have made Obito tease him, had he not been so preoccupied being dismayed at his teammate's total lack of enthusiasm. It was fortunate that it was so, since, at best, it would have caused Kakashi to withdraw further into his reclusive shell and, at worst, started an argument between the two.

Obito continued contemplating the plastic work of art. "Doesn't it remind you of her? The apron even looks like that skirt she's been wearing lately."

"You think Rin looks like a fat hippo?... who wears aprons?" Kakashi was far from being an expert on girls, nor was he particularly inclined to become one any time soon, but he felt rather confident that no girl would take that as a compliment.

"No. And it wouldn't be cute if it wasn't fat!" the Uchiha insisted.

That Obito Uchiha was a peculiar individual was something no one could ever doubt. This truth, however, did not help Kakashi process the intimate revelations that might or might not have been shared at the moment. "So, you like fat girls."

"What? No!" the response was immediate. "I don't like 'girls'!"

"Boys, then?"

The glare that Kakashi got in return for that comment would have flayed the skin off of most small animals, but it was balanced out by the deep flush that accompanied it. Even if it was hidden under a mask, Obito could well imagine the smug smile on his insufferable teammate's face.

"No," Obito carefully enunciated so that there would be no doubts. "Look, if you don't have anything helpful to say, then that's it: we're taking the hippo."

For all his talk of ninja composure and of reining in emotions, Kakashi was at his most annoying when he chortled. "Just ignore him," Obito thought to himself as he made his way to the counter. He knew that the little genius brat was trying to rile him on purpose. He just wished that he were not so very talented at it as he was.

Obito asked the clerk to wrap the present but leave the package open and then it was time to pay. He turned expectantly towards Kakashi.

"I'm not paying for that," his teammate said. "You're the one who insisted on coming here. You pay."

"I sort of spent the last of my money on that lunch just now... Come on, Kakashi. It's for Rin! Remember how Minato-sensei is always saying that the most important thing to a ninja is the team?"

"Teamwork," Kakashi pointedly clarified, but Obito waved a hand like it was all the same thing. He watched the debate unfold within Kakashi while the clerk waited – was it worth arguing the point? – until he slowly pulled out his wallet. "Fine, but you're paying me back first thing tomorrow. No excuses," he said and there was a sure threat of pain in his half-lidded glare.

Obito patted himself on the back for a job well done when the clerk gave them back the present they had chosen in a pretty flower-patterned envelope. Then he dove right back into the aisle that had the most feathers on it. Kakashi followed with an audible groan.

"I'm not paying for anything else," he warned.

Obito's eye twitched. It had nothing to do with the bottom edge of his goggles pressing down against his forehead and everything to do with his teammate's determined and continued grumpiness. All he said, though, was "Shut up. I need you to keep watch for a sec."

His quick fingers grabbed one of the round feathered things, which, against all odds, turned out to be markers. He then drew two small purple stripes down each side of the hippo's cheeks. Kakashi's gaze was on Obito the whole time rather than on the clerk, who was now looking at the two boys with suspicion: being in a ninja village, it would not be the first time a kid tried to take something on a five finger discount.

Realising this, Obito wasted no time in putting the marker back on the shelf and then getting himself out of the store. Kakashi followed him out, keeping a speculative eye on the key-chain hippo who now bore facial marks similar to Rin's clan tattoos.

"Are you sure Rin won't think you're comparing her to a fat hippo?"

"For the last time, Kakashi. It's. Cute! Trust me, she'll like it."

Obito was preparing to remove the protection over the adhesive strip that would close the wrapping when Kakashi told him to wait and took the figurine from his hands.

"We need to do something about about the spatula."

"Yeah, good thinking," Obito agreed, regarding the little appendage sticking out of one of the hippo's outstretched arms. "We should cut it off. Give it here." He reached to take it back as he pulled out a shuriken from his side-holster, but Kakashi turned his back to him.

"I'm not letting you do it. Sloppy as you are, you'll chop off the whole arm." Then, faster than Obito could follow, Kakashi had unholstered one of his own weapons and the little spatula was on the ground. The cut was so fine that no one could have guessed that there used to be anything there. "Done. Now give me the paper."

Impressed by his teammate's sure hand, Obito complied without question. Soon, the envelope was closed and the hippo affair concluded.

"I'm holding on to this until tomorrow," Kakashi said.

"Wow, Kakashi. Be careful. Your feelings are showing," Obito teased. At the same time, though, he was feeling proud that the other boy was starting to take an interest. That is, until he heard what he had to say to the teasing.

"I just don't want anything happening to this, since it was paid for with my money. Don't think I don't know what happened to your gift for Rin last year."

Images of a snow globe, miraculously whole and wrapped in mud-stained crumbling newspaper, flashed through Obito's synapses. An embarrassed smile was extending on his face, when he realised that Kakashi had not been there when he had given his present to Rin.

Actually, no one but Rin had been there to see the sorry state it had been left in by his two brothers' antics. He narrowed his eyes.

"How do you know that?"

"She told me," he said with all the emotion of a rock.

Obito chose to focus less on how Kakashi said it and more on what was said. "She remembers about it?" All of a sudden, the young Uchiha was back on that night, standing at the doorstep of the house of the girl he had a hopeless crush on, remembering how she had said she loved the gift and feeling her soft lips against his cheek. Then the fantasy crumbled in on itself when Kakashi moved to stand in front of him and pinned him with his dull gaze.

Once he was sure that Obito was back on the real world, he shook his head and left with a "see you tomorrow".

Obito gave him his own half-hearted farewell and started on his way home, trying to recapture the feelings from his memory once more. Later, he would think to himself that, as far as encounters with Kakashi usually went, this afternoon had not been so bad.

**oOo**

When Obito showed up for team practice the next day – unsurprisingly, late – Kakashi was waiting for him with an extended hand. Not in friendship; he just wanted his money back. He did not have to speak a word to make himself understood. Obito had left his house expecting as much. After the money had exchanged hands, they nodded at each other.

Side by side, they walked up to Rin, who was sitting on a rock chatting with their sensei to pass the time. She had not noticed the Uchiha's arrival yet.

"Happy birthday, Rin!" Obito greeted. He lost himself in the movement of her light brown hair as she turned to face him. A sharp, bony nudge from Kakashi snapped him out of it, though.

"Here," Kakashi said, presenting their gift.

"It's from the both of us," Obito was quick to add, a little jealous that his teammate had been the one to actually hand it over to Rin.

"Oh, you didn't have to..." Her expression lit up in a smile that only grew as the paper wrapping fell away. She laughed as she took note of the more personalized touches the boys had put on the gift. "It's so adorable. I love it!"

For a moment, Obito considered giving Kakashi the smuggest "I told you so" he could manage, but then Rin jumped up and wrapped her arms around the two boys.

Obito hugged back without thinking. He did not even care that he was at an embarrassingly close distance to Kakashi – making physical contact, even. Everything that had happened the previous day was coming together in this moment. Kakashi must have agreed somehow, because his arms soon came up around Rin as well.

Together, then, and with the perfume of Rin's shampoo right on his nose, Obito knew that his effort and Kakashi's had not been in vain. No matter how different they were, they could do it.

They could be a team.

They could be friends.

In time.

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**Final notes: Hope you enjoyed it! If you're interested, you can find the story about Obito's last gift-giving experience mentioned here in my one-shot "The Snow Globe" (mind-blowingly clever title, I know). Cheers!**


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